21 September 2010
Plans to replace police authorities with directly elected police and crime commissioners came under renewed fire today after it was claimed that the move would cost £101m.
An independent analysis conducted for the Association of Police Authorities found that changing the police’s governance structure would cost the equivalent of employing 600 full-time police officers over the first five years. The current configuration would cost £352m between 2011/12 and 2015/16 while the new arrangements are estimated to exceed £453m. The main additional costs are down to more frequent elections and operational transitions.
APA chair Rob Garnham told Public Finance he was ‘not convinced that there is a public appetite’ for the changes, which risked becoming a ‘distraction’ when police forces were trying to find ways of saving money. He also warned that the move threatened to ‘politicise’ policing and counteract progress in widening representation on police authorities, saying: ‘Are we just going to end up with a plethora of one type of individual standing for election?’
Garnham, a Conservative councillor and chair of Gloucestershire police authority, said he was paid only £17,000 a year for his policing work, whereas a new commissioner would be on ‘an MP’s salary, upwards of £60,000’.
But a Home Office spokesman would not confirm this figure, saying that pay proposals for police and crime commissioners would be made later this year. ‘These will reflect our focus on value for money and transparency, and take account of variation in force size and responsibilities,’ he said.
The APA’s cost findings were part of its submission to the government’s consultation Policing in the twenty-first Century, which closed yesterday. The Associationof Chief Police Officers also expressed concern about the timing of the reforms in its submission because of imminent ‘major financial cuts’ to policing.
Home Secretary Theresa May has been forced to defend the government against significant opposition to the move to create elected commissioners. A Home Office spokesman today said: ‘Police authorities don’t work – only 7% of the public have even heard of them. We are determined to hand back power to the people and will work hard to ensure a new, more democratically accountable system costs no more than police authorities do now.’
Garnham also told PF that police authorities should not be ring-fenced and he fully supported budget cuts of 12%, as proposed by the Inspectorateof Constabulary. He suggested savings could be found in the pay and conditions of police officers and staff, which account for 80% of total expenditure.
